Perfect Time for a Sight-reading Challenge

How would you like to motivate your students to sight-read every day during the month of May? What if you could do this AND give back to your community and those in need at the same time?

Sight-reading for Sight-saving

May is National Sight Saving Month and the perfect time for a sight-reading challenge. I got this idea from one of the editors in the MTNA eJournal last year and tried it in my studio in the fall (albeit at a time when it was not sight-saving month). My kids loved the challenge and loved giving to the local organization that helps people with sight challenges. What I loved the most is that they got in the habit of sight reading because of this challenge and I don’t have to badger them to sight-read these days!

Here’s the idea that you can easily adapt to your needs:

Find your local organization that works with visually impaired people and contact them about what you are trying to do. They may have some specific needs that might be especially motivating for your kids to donate to (e.g. rhythm instruments, etc.)
Make sure your students have sight reading material. There are a host of sight-reading books at all levels. For my advanced students, I have them sight read the first 2 lines of advanced pieces from their books.
Decide how much per day, per student you can give. For example, make May your giving month and give anywhere from $.05 to $.25 per student per day that they sight read. It may not seem like much, but it adds up. So, calculate what is the most that you will be able to give and work backwards, assuming that your students will sight-read 5-6 days per week.
Send out information about national sight-saving month and how you plan to donate for every day that your students sight read. Ask parents to consider matching your donations or even giving over and above what you give.
Keep a chart in your studio so that students can keep track of how many days they sight read, and you can keep track of how much money you are giving. In my studio, I was giving $.25 per student per day, so I found a graphic at our local teaching store of a bunch of quarters on a page. The students colored a quarter in for every day that they sight read. It was a great visual reminder of what they were doing and some of them got very competitive with the other students, so it was highly motivating.
At the end of the month, calculate how much you are giving, remind parents to send you their matching donations, and send all of that to the sight-saving organization you are supporting. Include a letter explaining that this was from your students and how you organized this. They will love hearing about it!

If you don’t have a local organization that helps visually impaired people, here are a few to consider:

There are many things that you could do to expand this idea, so I’d love to hear about it if you do this. I expanded it during the Christmas season to come up with this ornament challenge (part 1 and part 2) which the kids absolutely loved (and which did not cost me anything except a little time and more time having fun with my students since the prize was an extra 15-20 minutes of group lesson games)! If you live in a large community, you might even be able to find a teacher with a blind student that can give you some giving ideas. It’s wonderful to be able to give to those in need, give our students the opportunity to earn money for a good cause, and to help our students sharpen their sight-reading skills as well!